Anti-Virus Software.

[alexandraaah]

Hey everyone!

I've just replaced my hard drive and I'm looking for an anti-virus program that you all think is the most thorough and effective out there.

My needs are basic, except for my mail. I have an alternate email account for work I do that is linked to a server that gives and receives the klez worm virus all the time. I used to use Norton, which would detect that virus as soon as I highlighted a message that had that virus, and would allow me to delete it before opening, but when I ran my weekly scan, 9 times out of 10, the virus would have made its way onto my drive.

Any suggestions? I've heard of "mail washers," but I'm not quite sure what that is or how to find it.

If this topic has been done ad nauseam and someone could bump up the thread, I'll happily remove this one!

Thanks all.

 

[ArtifexLignorum]

Gosh the current Norton has a incoming and outgoing email scan feature. It seems to work fine. I see it process all my mail. Have you looked at the 2002 NAV features from Norton?

 

[alexandraaah]

Gosh the current Norton has a incoming and outgoing email scan feature. It seems to work fine. I see it process all my mail. Have you looked at the 2002 NAV features from Norton?

I haven't, I came here first to see what you all had to say.

I think the Norton that I had was the package that came with my computer, and I fear it was obsolete.

I don't mind paying for something effective.

I'll take this as one vote for the current Norton?

 

[Jaded1]

Good morning, Alexandraaaaah.......

I have used Norton's Anti Virus for years and have not experienced any difficults. I had come under attack from a person I had meet on the internet and Norton's Anti Virus picked it up each time. I switched to Norton's Internet Security System which may be over kill for your application and very very happy with it. Your may want to review you program settings. I run my definitions update for know virus on a weekly bases. You in fact dealing with the internet more than I do may have to run the virus definition update more frequently than I do. If you have any additional question feel free to PM me.

 

[alexandraaah]

Great advice, thank you Jaded1!

I use DSL, I have no idea if this changes my anti-virus needs or not.

Also, whomever "went after" you in that way....weak, very very weak. Hope it never happens again.

 

[Jaded1]

Alexandraaah.......

If you get the chance take a look at Norton's Internet Security. It has both a Anti Virus and a Fire Wall together in one system. With the Fire Wall in place I get notified the second someone trys to access my computer via the internet. I then have the option of letting them in or blocking the out all together. No one sneaks in with out me knowing it!

 

[alexandraaah]

Re: Alexandraaah.......

If you get the chance take a look at Norton's Internet Security. It has both a Anti Virus and a Fire Wall together in one system. With the Fire Wall in place I get notified the second someone trys to access my computer via the internet. I then have the option of letting them in or blocking the out all together. No one sneaks in with out me knowing it!

This sounds like exactly what I need.

I'm off now to check it out, thanks!

 

[Jaded1]

Mmmmmm................

The pleasures been all mine...............

 

[alexandraaah]

Re: Mmmmmm................

The pleasures been all mine...............

<grins>

Knowledgable and a flirt!

 

[Jaded1]

Hmmmmm..............

I flirt only when a beautiful woman is involved..............

 

[Ice Princess]

I'm running Norton Internet Security too. It's got all the Norton Antivirus stuff, with the weekly updates for new viruses, and scans incoming and outgoing emails. It also has the additional firewall, which has been really good for when hackers try to access my machine while I'm using filesharing programs like Kazaa, and it's got some other stuff I don't mess with very much, like Ad Blocking and some privacy control features.

Somebody on the GB recommended an antivirus program the other day and I paid particular attention because I knew he worked with computers professionally (might have been Draco?). Anyway, I bookmarked the site -- http://blackice.iss.net/ -- and then never really explored it after that. That one might be worth checking too.

 

[Jaded1]

Ice Princess.........

Your may want to reconsider playing with some of the settings. The ad blocking capabilities are sweet! Unless you really enjoy being spammed to death?

 

[Ice Princess]

Maybe I should. I thought it was mainly for banner ads, and my ISP has a sort of spamguard option that should catch most of the spam. It doesn't work all that well, though, so I will take a look at the Norton options. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Jaded1]

Ice Princess.....

At your beck'n call my lady.................

 

[Willing and Unsure]

I've heard a lot of good stuff about Trend Microhouse's PC Cillin that's out there. I scan mine on occasion with their free scan cuz I dont fully trust Norton that I'm running.

here's the site for it. I find it catches everythign, including spyware that Norton will overlook.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/


I would suggest mcafee, but that one caused me a lot more problems than it should have. for some reason when I went to update it kept telling me the license expired even though it hadnt.

 

[Tap-Out]

If it's anti-virus software you're looking for I use a program called "AVG" by a company called Grisoft. It has both a hard drive virus scanner and an e-mail scanner. It's freeware and there has yet to be a virus/trojan that has tried to get on my computer that it hasen't picked up. Updates are free, and there is even an auto-update feature if you leave your computer on 24/7 it will auto update without you needing to re-boot your computer, or you can manually update if you feel the need to.

You can go to www.grisoft.com to download the program and I highly recommend it.

 

[alexandraaah]

I bought the Norton package that includes the anti-virus and the firewall protection and just installed it.

So far so good.

Thanks for all the info., folks!

 

[Weird Harold]

I've heard a lot of good stuff about Trend Microhouse's PC Cillin that's out there. I scan mine on occasion with their free scan cuz I dont fully trust Norton that I'm running.

here's the site for it. I find it catches everythign, including spyware that Norton will overlook.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

I run PC-Cillin 6 and the Real-Time Scan function has caught all but two attempt to infect my computer, and those were probably because I don't have a scheduled update configured -- I update whenever someone asks about virus protection and reminds me.

The real time scan checks every program that runs for a virus -- everytime it runs.

 

[alexandraaah]

I have a feeling I know the answer to this one, but it's worth a try...is there any way to use the firewall and anti-virus without it sucking so much of my system resources?

I did disable the "auto scan," but I need the email scan. I also need the firewall, but I'm wondering if there's a whole bunch of extras that I don't need that might be bogging down my system.

Anyone know the Norton package really well?

 

[LordMagicMan]

I have a feeling I know the answer to this one, but it's worth a try...is there any way to use the firewall and anti-virus without it sucking so much of my system resources?

I did disable the "auto scan," but I need the email scan. I also need the firewall, but I'm wondering if there's a whole bunch of extras that I don't need that might be bogging down my system.

Anyone know the Norton package really well?

Not really. They run their basic cores wither or not you have them turned on or off. As for the firewall protection, unless you have your computer on 24/7 it is not all the necessary. The only people that are going to be invading your system would be people who know you. Very few people bother hacking into home systems. There are some out there, but not many.

Never share your ip address with anyone. The auto scan is the whole point to using norton. Without it you wont catch the malicious strands of code out there on webpages...

 

[MR.GGG]

Use a MAC.

Seriously, there are 103,000 viruses out there attacking IBMs every day.

There are 7 for MACs and a simple freeware program catches them all.

The reason?

Hackers know that unlike the anti-gun/democratic/leftest IBM crowd, the
MAC boys would HUNT THEM DOWN and dine on their livers if they pissed
us off !!!

 

[alexandraaah]

Well, I have DSL, so I am on constantly when my computer is on...which is all day.

So, now that I have it all installed, it runs at startup. Is the suggestion that I simply run the anti-virus weekly and not keep it on all the time? (Short of getting a Mac, which I can't do right now). I'm confused.

I NEED the mail checker, without question.

 

[Tap-Out]

The software program I mentioned above is really small and takes up almost no system resources. I am running it on a P150 and I noticed no difference in speed with or without it. It did however manage to detect the 3 virii that tried to hop on the system.

 

[Weird Harold]

I have a feeling I know the answer to this one, but it's worth a try...is there any way to use the firewall and anti-virus without it sucking so much of my system resources?

I did disable the "auto scan," but I need the email scan. I also need the firewall, but I'm wondering if there's a whole bunch of extras that I don't need that might be bogging down my system.

Anyone know the Norton package really well?

System resource hogging is the primary complaint about Norton's software. I don't know of any way to eliminate it without giving up the features that make Norton's one of the best.

You should be able to turn off everything except the firewall and anti-virus software, but the auto-scan is an important part of the anti-virus protection.

If system resources are a still a problem, you might have to consider a different anti-virus and firewall that aren't so closely integrated with other functions.

I use PC-Cillin and Zone-Alarm for those functions and don't have trouble with system resources.

If you're running Windows ME, then your going to have problems wih system resources anyway unless you've downloaded the fix for it's memory management problems.

 

[Ice Princess]

I used Zone Alarm for a while and had good luck with it, and I think it's probably less memory intensive than Norton with all the features on. The Norton Internet Security has ad blocking, personal information shielding, the firewall and the virus checking. You could tinker with it a little and see how your system does with just the firewall and antivirus, and then just with antivirus on, and see what the difference is. If the Norton firewall is taking up lots of resources, you could replace it with something smaller like Zone Alarm and see if that helps (and it's free, so there isn't any extra expense if you want to try it out and see if it works better for you).

This is a link for Zone Alarm (the free version):
http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10153456.html?tag=lst-0-8

Definitely leave the live update on, the automatic virus definition downloading. You can't really afford to do without that, if your primary concern is protecting your system from viruses.